Hi! I’m very sorry if this is an intrusive question or just bothersome (please don’t feel obligated to answer if you don’t want!).
I am currently a little over half done with my MLIS and am finally getting more field experience. Your post about not being prepped in school for upsetting materials made me wonder, what kind stuff I should be preparing myself for? Do you have any examples of things you really wish grad school had readied you for but didn’t?
I had another similar request in response to this post so kinda putting them together in one
I will preface this by noting that I have worked in a lot of different kinds of archival collections so some things are more common and others not so much. Also, we do find lots of cool stuff and oh so much boring stuff as well. This is not intended to drive anyone away from archives and special collections, just a heads up that people and institutions are messy and that is very evident the records we leave.
To give an idea of the range of collection types I have worked in: federal government, state government, more than one natural history museum, academic library special collections, corporate archives, state history museum collections, city councilor/state senator and member of congress collections.
Some of the more common types of rough materials to come to the archives
Finding porn is literally always a possibility. Though rarely in boxes or folders labeled as such. This isn’t necessarily upsetting or difficult to deal with but somehow it always appears at the worst possible moment. Like a student group shows up or a VIP is being given a tour and now things are uncomfortable because you are trying to figure out why 5 of the same issue of Hustler are in this box of materials from a gay politician. Totally not based on actual events. (And in one case, very upsetting sexually explicit materials appeared)
When working on collections of a person/family/organization, you will find out things you wish you hadn’t. Their worst mistakes or that they did/believed/thought xyz, that they were super mean, whatever. This can be rough if it is/was someone you admired. You will get a glimpse of them at their worst. This can also be a challenge if they are still alive and you have to work with them or have the awkward conversation like “hey so we found all these letters to your mistress and our deed of gift isn’t for personal materials and we are supposed to offer personal materials to you so do you want them back?” Or maybe you have that conversation with their surviving family 🙃
Racism, homophobia, misogyny, antisemitism, xenophobia, and so on. It, uh, it can be really bad. This might be crank/hate mail, this might be sprinkled into notes, this might be slang, cartoons/visual representations. It comes in many many forms.
Accidental Death and Dismemberment files. This is often within employee accident/workman’s comp type files. Not always with photos but sometimes with photos.
Dealing with materials of a traumatic event you have lived through and remember. For example, I have dealt with a lot of materials on 9/11. From federal down to daily meeting notes from neighborhoods directly impacted by the fall of the World Trade Center. It comes up often. Sometimes it’s easy to move through those materials. Sometimes I have to put a lot of time and focus into them because I need to watch for personal identifying information that can’t yet be made public.
Some of the other difficult types of materials/subjects I personally have come across
Hate crimes files and case reports, sometimes with photos
Human trafficking and kidnapping
Involuntary institutionalization
Looting/theft of artifacts, desecration of sites/burials, buying/selling/trading of human remains
Materials/artifacts from hate groups, gangs, nazis
Biohazard materials. (Please don’t send blood to the archives.) In addition to like hair and fingernails, dirty clothes.
Lots of animal death, photos and sometimes specimens (you would assume this is limited to those natural history museums I worked for. You would be wrong)
Eugenics and racist pseudoscience. As in records of a eugenics conference and society.
Sometimes you see the ugly stuff, or potential for it to be ugly, coming. Sometimes it reaches out and smacks you. Step away and take time as needed. Talk with other people in the profession. Having a therapist is awesome if that is available to you. Have some coping mechanisms at the ready. And if you are going more toward librarianship than archives, that is a different response but I am barely a librarian so I leave that to someone else.
I know this is a daunting list. I don’t find these kinda of things every day. Some collections come with far more trauma and upsetting materials than others. Some are just boring. I always feel like such a bummer when I talk to folks about the profession. Sorry. But I would rather people not be completely blindsided.
snowghoul
theartofmadeline
